Hindu, Chennai - National Human Rights Commission

Hindu, Chennai
Saturday 9th May 2015, Page: 5
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NATIONAL » TAMIL NADU
Published: May 10, 2015 00:00 IST | Updated: May 10, 2015 05:46 IST
Tiruvannamalai, May 10, 2015
NHRC to record witnesses of kin of encounter
victims
A.D.BALASUBRAMANIYAN
An investigation team of National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) will visit
Tiruvannamalai and Dharmapuri on May 12 and 13 respectively to record statements of
witnesses in the April 7 encounter case. Twenty woodcutters were killed in the incident
in Seshachalam forests, Andhra Pradesh.
According to sources, the team would be led by a Special Superintendent of Police and
would include a Deputy Superintendent of Police and a translator. The team would be
meeting the family members of 12 victims from Tiruvannamalai district at the
Tiruvannamalai Collectorate on May 12. The team will also meet the family members of
seven victims from Dharmapuri district and the lone victim from Salem district at
Dharmapuri collectorate on May 13.
PMK advocate K.Balu sent a petition on behalf of Muniyammal, wife of Sasikumar, one
of the encounter victims, urging the team to come the districts and record the statements
of the witnesses in TamilNadu as it would be tough for the impoverished family
members to go to Hyderabad. Mr.Balu told The Hindu that the NHRC considered the
plea and decided to send the team to Tiruvannamalai and Dharmapuri. The District
Collectors had been intimated about the visit, sources confirmed.
This is in continuation of recording of statements of Sekar and Balachandran, who claim
to have seen some woodcutters being taken away by the Andhra Pradesh police a day
before.
Plea dismissed
In Madurai, A magistrate court here dismissed on Friday the plea of three witnesses in
the sensational encounter killings of 20 woodcutters in Andhra Pradesh to record their
statements under Section 164 of Code of Criminal Procedure, following an order passed
by the National Human Rights Commission.
The three witnesses – M. Ilango (20), P. Sekar (55) and A. Balachandran (29) — had filed
a plea to record their statements through a petition filed by Henri Tiphagne, Executive
Director, People’s Watch. The Judicial Magistrate, V. Dhananjayan, dismissed the plea,
citing a Supreme Court judgement, which said such statements should be recorded only
on the initiation of the investigating officer.
The petition was originally filed on April 29 and hearing was posted to the following day.
Mr. Henri said that the trio would go on appeal to the High Court.
(Additional reporting by S. Annamalai)